HEILUNG | Travelling Through Time With Pagan Rituals
Heilung are truly unique, a blend of experimental pagan Germanic & Scandinavian folk music from the distant past. How does one even describe their live show? Imagine traveling through time back to the Bronze Age. You emerge in a sacred oak grove during the Solstice celebrations. In awe, you witness ritualistic music created by the druids, seers, shamans, and warriors. As they chant, sing, dance, and perform sacrifices to the Gods. The journey is dark and intense, but you come out the other side transformed. Fittingly, Heilung means “Healing” in German.
Featuring members from Denmark, Germany, and Norway, the band considers their music to be “Amplified History” of the Bronze, Iron, and Viking Ages. Their lyrics are taken from the ancient poems and runes of Germanic peoples that were inscribed on jewelry, weapons, and rune stones. They sing in German, English, Gothic, Old High German, Icelandic, Old English, Proto-Norse, Proto-Germanic, and Old Norse.
The band went viral due to the video of their performance at Castlefest 2017 in the Netherlands. The full video of the concert “LIFA” has 3.8 million views, while the song “Krigsgaldr” has over 17 million views! Very impressive for an indie band making such esoteric music without the backing of a major label or support from commercial radio!
The band wears historically accurate costumes made with antlers and animal skins. They are body painted and tattooed with runes. Throughout the performance, there are soundscapes of nature, water, fire, the howls of animals, the chirping of birds. They play ancient Bronze Age instruments built out of wood, fur, skin, and bones such as:
- Blot drum made out of horse skin painted with human blood
- Two deerskin drums
- One goatskin drum
- A human forearm bone
- Deer Bones & Antlers
- Buffalo Horn Rattle
- Clay Rattle with Human ashes
- Hindu Ritual Bell
- Ravanahatha (ancient instrument from India)
- Bone Whistles
Heilung’s music consists of hypnotic bass drum rhythms, while the three bandleaders add their unique vocal style. Maria Franz sings ethereal melodies that soar over top. The Shaman of the group Kai Uwe Faust provides deep bass tones, alternating between throat singing drones and harsh bursts of guttural staccato chanting. Christopher Juul, who produces their music, sings harmonies in mid to low range, sometimes whispering, sometimes reminiscent of Gregorian chants on songs like “In Maidjan“.
Backed up by two female singers and two percussionists, the band also features a motley crew of nine pagan warriors with spears and shields. Throughout the show, the entire collective bangs on drums, rattles shakers, chants the vocals, and adds harmonies. It is truly mesmerizing and trance-inducing.
The band has researched the subject deeply to re-create the music of their ancestors. The show opened with a ritualistic prayer before they began beating deep bass drums, similar to the Japanese Taiko drum and First Nations Pow Wow drums. Members played hand drums reminiscent to an Irish Bodhran and various rattles and bells.
They build an intense wall of sound that completely overwhelms while awakening some primal buried aspect of your soul that was hidden deep in your DNA.
Words cannot do justice to describe the voyage they take you on. It is a total visceral experience — a rite of passage. The pacing of the show was brilliant, varying the instrumentation, tempo, intensity, and theatricality.
The stage design immersed you in the concept, decorated with trees, a ceremonial bell on top of a massive bass drum, risers for the backing musicians mic stands disguised as tree branches, decorated with pagan artifacts, bones, feathers, animal skins, etc.
The light show perfectly complemented the performance, mostly blue and white, with occasional flashes of red. Under the risers, pulses of white light were in sync with the main bass drum hits. “Hamrer Hippyer” was the most intense song of the night, with its pounding rhythms, chanted chorus, and strobe lights in full force. On the song “Traust,” they symbolically enacted a human sacrifice where a topless body painted woman was ritualistically bound and strangled until the ritual singing of Maria resurrected her.
The concert was absolutely mind-blowing. I have no idea how long it lasted as it took me far away. My only criticism of the show was that they didn’t play “Fylgija Ear / Futhrock.” Their most melodic song, it is a fan favourite due to the interplay between the vocals of Maria and Kai. I was sure they would come back for an encore to play it, but despite the crowd yelling for more, they sadly never re-emerged.
Heilung has two studio albums, a live album, and amazing merchandise available on the record label Season of Mist. They performed for Heavy Montreal on January 26 at the Theatre Olympia, courtesy of Greenland Productions and Evenko.
For those who wish to delve a little deeper, here is a video of one of their songs with English subtitles. Many of the lyrics from this song were taken from runes on an ancient spear: prayers to Odin, dedicating the weapon to find the heart of the enemy. If you are familiar with Norse Mythology and the Viking Sagas, you will recognize the structure and concepts.
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